Developer:
Game FreakPublisher:
NintendoPlatform:
Game Boy ColorReleased in JP: December 14, 2000Released in US: July 30, 2001Released in EU: November 2, 2001Released in AU: September 30, 2001

This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences.

Pokémon Crystal is the update to Pokémon Gold and Silver with a focus on Suicune and the mobile phone stuff, which is removed from all versions except for the Japanese version. Pokémon Crystal was notable for being the first Pokémon game where you could play as a female character.

Sub-Pages

Leftover Content

Maps

All of the unused maps from Gold and Silver remain in the ROM of Crystal. The Game Genie code to restore the Safari Zone gate's door is even the same!

To do:Confirm this. And Crystal also made minor changes to many maps as well as some big changes (e.g.: Ice Path, Champion room at the Pokémon League) so the Gold and Silver maps could still be there as well.

Clock Reset

Like the non-Japanese versions of Gold and Silver, the international releases of Crystal contain a feature to reset the clock. However, the process to activate the screen was made more complex:

Opening Sequence

There is an unused title screen in the data that does not reboot the game after the music ends, unlike the final title screen. Part of the title is constituted by sprites, which partially cover the logo. It is programmed at the beginning of bank 43 (address 0x10C000) and is complete with tilesets, palettes and loading functions. To reinstate it, the bytes in the following offsets should be altered in order to load it and disable the regular title screen's animation:

English version: change 0x67 in 0x6277 to 0x00 and 0x6D in 0x6278 to 0x40; replace the five bytes in addresses 0x6226-0x622A with F0 A2 A7 28 FB.

Japanese version: change 0x67 in 0x63EF to 0x00 and 0x6D in 0x63F0 to 0x40; replace the five bytes in addresses 0x63A0-0x63A4 with F0 A2 A7 28 FB.

The music from the opening sequences of Gold and Silver also remains in the ROM, despite not being used in Crystal.

Sorry, your browser either has JavaScript disabled or does not have any supported player. You can download the clip or download a player to play the clip in your browser.

The unused Opening Demo track from Gold and Silver. Its ID is 52.

Sorry, your browser either has JavaScript disabled or does not have any supported player. You can download the clip or download a player to play the clip in your browser.

The unused Opening Demo 2 track from Gold and Silver. Its ID is 53.

Super Game Boy Features

Even though Pokémon Crystal is not compatible with the original Game Boy models or the Super Game Boy, it has an unused Super Game Boy border programmed into the game. It can be enabled by setting the flag at offset 146) to 03. It is a leftover from the Japanese Gold version in all releases; being that the border does not fit well with Crystal, it was likely that it was never intended to be used at all. To enable the Super Game Boy features on real hardware or on an emulator, use the Game Genie code 031-46F-E6A (note that because the Super Game Boy checks for the bit after booting, you must first power it up with any game that has Super Game Boy enhancements inserted into the Game Genie, then insert the Pokémon Crystal cartridge with the Game Genie to see the hidden features).

It is worth noting that music was planned to play on the error message screen that appears as load functions are present.

There are several other unused palettes that may be leftovers from Gold and Silver. Game Genie codes ??9-A8B-91B + ?69-A7B-B31 will load any of these unused palettes. ATTR_BLK settings are not actual palettes but rather attribute settings and they appear black, so they won't be documented.

IDB6 5A

ID26 5B

ID36 5B

ID46 5B

ID66 5B

ID86 5B

ID96 5B

IDA6 5B

IDB6 5B

IDC6 5B

IDD6 5B

IDE6 5B

IDF6 5B

ID06 5C

ID16 5C

ID26 5C

ID36 5C

ID46 5C

ID56 5C

ID66 5C

ID76 5C

ID86 5C

ID96 5C

ID76 5C

ID86 5C

ID96 5C

IDA6 5C

IDB6 5C

IDC6 5C

IDD6 5C

IDE6 5C

IDF6 5C

(Source: nensondubois for finding palettes and Game Genie music code)

SILVER

In Gold, the default name for the player's rival when a blank name is provided is SILVER in English and シルバー in Japanese. This remains true in Crystal, which further suggests that it was developed from Gold rather than Silver.

In contrast, the default name in Silver is GOLD in English and ゴールド in Japanese.

Shiny Mew

For the sake of consistency, every Pokémon in every Pokémon game is given a Shiny variant, including Mew. However, all Mew distributed to Generation I games have a fixed set of DVs that prevents them from becoming Shiny when traded to Generation II games, leaving its Shiny form unobtainable without cheating or glitches such as the Long-Range Trainer Glitch used in conjunction with the Ditto Glitch or going against 'Slowpoke Kid', for example, would produce a Mew with random DVs.

Shiny Mew would later be available in Emerald as a normal Shiny chance for the wild Mew encounter at Faraway Island (via the Japanese Old Sea Map distribution).

Version Differences

Changed Graphics

The sprite changes in the localizations of Gold and Silver also apply to the localizations of Crystal. Except for Jynx, the changes in the Pokémon sprites were also taken into account for the Japanese Crystal.

The other changes in the layouts and graphics of the games were also reused for Crystal.

PokéCom Center

One of the primary differences between Japanese Crystal and Gold & Silver is that the Pokémon Center in Goldenrod City is replaced with the Pokémon Communication Center (or PokéCom Center for short) to allow access to the Pokémon Mobile System GB. Japanese players could connect their Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance to their mobile phones using a special link cable and access the wireless network, which was shut down in December 2002. This feature is very similar to the Global Terminal featured in HeartGold and SoulSilver, which may explain why HGSS' Global Terminal was placed in Goldenrod.

This is what the PCC looks like from the outside. Its sign says "For mobile tips! POKéCOM CENTER"

This is what the ground floor of the PCC looks like. The left-most desk continues to operate as a Pokémon healing service, while the center desk acts as the mobile trade center, and the area to the far right is the Pokémon News Machine where players could read about each other's Pokémon adventures. The stairs go to the typical second floor Pokémon Center layout with the regular link cable rooms. The pink door in the upper left corner leads to the Administration Office.

And this is the Administration Office, which can be accessed from the aforementioned door at the top-left of the map.

Sorry, your browser either has JavaScript disabled or does not have any supported player. You can download the clip or download a player to play the clip in your browser.

This rearrangement of the Pokémon Center music is used once the player successfully connects to the Pokémon Mobile System GB service for the first time. Its ID is 66.

In the international releases, there's an unused warp right above the stairs on the ground floor of the regular Pokémon Center that leads here. Without hacking the ROM or using glitches, it can be accessed with GameShark code 0160E4D4, which alters the behavior of the warp tile so that it behaves like a hole tile.

The Japanese version actually has a bug related to the PCC. As soon as you enter it, the game tries to execute the script ID found at SRAM address A800, which is normally expected to be zero. However, if playing on a fresh cartridge with clear SRAM (i.e. never having saved the game), this address can contain any value due to the arbitrary state of SRAM; the game then tries to execute an invalid script ID, usually resulting in a game freeze. Even though the PCC is not used in the localized versions, the programmers still added a check to see if A800 is zero before attempting to execute the script.

GS Ball Event

In the Japanese version, the GS Ball, which enables the Ilex Forest event where you can catch Celebi, was distributed as an event item via the Pokemon Mobile System GB during certain timeslots to Japanese players who had beaten the game and could successfully complete a minigame and a trivia quiz.

For the localized versions, which don't have the Pokemon Mobile System GB, the GS Ball event got reprogrammed and adapted to the regular Pokémon Center, however no such event was ever held overseas. This event can be activated by setting the byte at 0xBE3C in an English save file to 0x0B.

Mobile Center

The Japanese version's Mobile Center feature was disabled internationally, causing some graphics and music to become unused. Its translation is incomplete as various text remains untranslated and displayed as gibberish since most of the Japanese characters are no longer present.

The Mobile Center (shown as MOBILE in-game) can be accessed on a save file with GameShark code 010576CF in all non-Japanese versions. It plays the following music (ID5E):

Sorry, your browser either has JavaScript disabled or does not have any supported player. You can download the clip or download a player to play the clip in your browser.

The English localization made the most progress, followed by German and Spanish. The profile entry screen defaults completely blank except in English.

English

German

Spanish

French

Italian

Mobile Connection

Sorry, your browser either has JavaScript disabled or does not have any supported player. You can download the clip or download a player to play the clip in your browser.

This music has ID5F. It is used in the Japanese version on the mobile connection screen.

Mobile Stadium

In the Japanese version, this feature can be used to send data of timed mobile battles to the Japanese Pokémon Stadium 2 via the Transfer Pak, which is then converted into a battle video. The Vs. Recorder item in recent Pokémon games provides similar functionality.

Like the Mobile Center, the Mobile Stadium feature was disabled internationally, and it suffers from the same incomplete translation issues. It can be accessed with the aforementioned GameShark code 010576CF in all non-Japanese versions.

In the English versions, its entry on the menu is misspelled as MOBILE STUDIUM.

Curiously German and Spanish, like English, translated the intro text, while it was left blank in Italian and French. In addition English revision 1.1 and the European languages have a glitched background due to an unintentional LF→CRLF/CR→CRLF conversion.

German

Spanish

French

Italian

Ruins of Alph Text

In the Japanese version, a scientist studying the Ruins of Alph suggests that the Pokémon Communication Center in Goldenrod City affects the behavior of the Unown. This was understandably cut from the localizations but the translated text remains in the data.

According to my
research...
Those mysterious
patterns appeared
when the POKéCOM
CENTER was built.
It must mean that
radio waves have
some sort of a
link...

Battle Tower

Another major difference in the localizations of Crystal is the Battle Tower. Unlike in the Japanese release, it does not rely on the Pokémon Mobile System GB so it's open to everyone. This also means that access to the tower in the Japanese version after the shutdown of the mobile service is impossible; however, the GameShark code 0160D7D4, which alters the behavior of the warp tile so that it behaves like a hole tile, can be used to enter it (the "walk through walls" GameShark code is required: 01003ED1 01003FD1 010040D1 010041D1).

In the Japanese version of the Battle Tower, players competed with each other over the Mobile System GB to become Room Leaders, earning their spot on an Honor Roll that could be viewed from the main lobby. In the international versions, the multiplayer functionality, Room Leaders, and the Honor Roll were removed; players instead fight a series of seven generic AI trainers, and are rewarded for defeating all of them with a set of five stat-increasing vitamins.

Despite the change, all of the dialogue relating to the Mobile System GB functionality was translated and remains in the ROM alongside the rewritten text.

To do:More info on how it works in the Japanese version?

Trainers' names order alteration

To do:Check if this is true for other European localisations too.

In the Spanish localisation of the game, the trainers' names order is reversed. It is the only game in the franchise to make this unexplained change.